NÓZ W WODZIE, aka "Knife in the Water" (Roman Polanski, 1962)

Roman Polanski begins his feature length directorial debut with a medium shot of a couple driving in their car early one morning. This first shot feels very tight as the two are sitting close enough to be uncomfortable, suggesting their relationship as husband and wife. It seems they have reached the stage in the marriage where language is hardly necessary to communicate.

This trend continues throughout the film; the couple being showed physically close together in almost every scene. Once the young hiker is introduced, Polanski’s intent seems to be to draw contrast between the couple and the hiker, to suggest their differences with a sense of humor, but as well with an underlying tension. Polanski uses close up shots of the hiker in the foreground, such as the scene when the knife is first introduced, as the couple sits behind in the background close together. This separates the boy even more, and it almost seems like we are getting a view through his eyes seeing them like he does; they behave very differently than him. These shots also seem to suggest the boy holds some kind of power over them, thus adding to the tension.
We are also meant to focus on these three characters, because Polanski made very sure not to include any evidence of other human activity in the whole film. In all his long shots no other boats on the lake or cars on the road can be seen. This decision seems to be a stylistic choice causing a lonely and abandoned feeling, also adding to the tension under the surface. The closest he gets to outside humanity is a radio announcer’s voice that seems to distract the husband Andrzej for a few minutes.

One strange camera choice Polanski chose to use came during the scene when the husband and wife both go swimming and the boat goes out of control (seemingly accidentally, but that’s questionable). As the husband swims to catch up, the film is slightly sped up. It is a subtle increase that seems to be more comic than anything. However, Polanski continues through the entire film to use humor and drama in a balance; just enough humor to keep the tension off until the end. I believe that he keeps the dialogue somewhat light, but in his shots he means to be more foreboding, making the audience subconsciously nervous. All the close-ups with background characters--the lonely panoramic long shots, and the medium shots with characters squeezed together--set us up for the adulterous ending, as well as forcing the characters to deal with a homicide. Audiences these days might be a bit more jaded and expect something like this, but I imagine it was a bit more shocking in 1962. Polanski has made quite a suspense movie that seems to guise itself in humor.

Knife in the Water is a classic psychological drama, relying heavily on camera manipulations to allude to the tension among the movie’s three characters. The first example occurs in the opening of the movie, when Krystyna and Andrzej are in the car. The camera shot is stationary, yet it is incredibly unstable and unclear, hindering the viewer from establishing the movie’s tone. Because the camera shots do not favor one character over the other, it is at once difficult to place the characters into specific roles, and creates a silent tension among them, as if they are passively competing for dominance.

Within the first half hour, an underlying tension is established between the Youth and Andrzej. A clear demonstration of this use of camera manipulations occurs when Andrzej orders the Youth to coil up a rope. There is a close up shot of Andrzej as he orders the Youth to perform the action, followed by a close up of the Youth as he counters Andrzej’s order by calling him a drill sergeant. By cutting from one close up to another, Polanski effectively demonstrates that it is one man against the other, which mounts as the tension and rivalry build throughout the movie.

A third camera manipulation used to further demonstrate the tension between the characters is demonstrated when there is a close up of Krystyna and the Youth when they are alone on the sailboat as they contemplate a kiss. What was before a subtle sexual tension surges to the forefront. What was a psychological puzzle has now been solved. Though the two become more intimate in the following scenes, the initial shot of them slowly leaning in to kiss, their eyes focused on each other, sums up the increasing emotional and physical tension between the two characters.

Through Polanski’s creative use of camera manipulations, Knife in the Water is a successful psychological drama, focusing on the tensions that exist between the movie’s characters. As the dialogue is sparse and non-descriptive of the true psychological undercurrents, it is the visual effects that make the movie the masterpiece that it is.

Polanski combines several different camera techniques in his film Knife in the Water, with the result of the effective conveyance of plot and theme to the audience by way of form and style.

One of the first manifestations of this perspective occurs when the group arrives at the marina. We get a close up of the left back portion of Andrzej's head with a long shot of his wife Krystyna and the student walking across the peer together. Polanski is constantly giving the audience a feel of what one character is seeing. As in this instance, Andrzej is seeing his opponent walking behind his wife. Polanski just summarized what the whole movie is about in one shot.

Polanski also uses shot scale to keep everything close, as if the audience were on the tiny yacht with the three people. During the game of jack straws, Polanski implements a medium close up of all three characters. Polanski is capturing the tension between the two men contending over the lady with the way they are framed on the screen. The director's use of medium to close up shots makes the tension pop out at you in a very subtle way. Polanski imparts the building tension as the competition between the two men increases by keeping the same subtle close shots and not letting the audience relax from the front lines of the psychological battle.

Feet. . . Polanski is obsessed with feet in this movie. He is invariably doing close up shots of feet. A particularly profound example of this is at the end of the movie as Krystyna and Andrzej walk to the car together. In fact, the only time the camera ever seems to move is to follow feet as they walk. Walking is a very important aspect of the film and he conveys this through his attentiveness to the character's feet. As a character moves to a new emotion, decision, or action, Polanski has the camera there to capture it through their physical act of walking.
These three things combine to give the audience the essence of the movie without need of words. Had this been a silent movie, Polanski would still have conveyed his point. Despite the crummy subtitles, the film was completely understandable by way of Polanski's brilliant cinematography.

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Last update: 9/8/2004